Automobiles

Automobiles A False Sense of Hope!

The automobiles in the novel, The Grapes of Wrath, written by John Steinbeck, are a key symbol that represents the hardship the characters had to endure. The car symbolizes a false sense of hope in a community of crushed soles, in a country filled with dust and sorrow. People in the depression were looking for a way out of a place with no hope, money was scarce, and people were desperate to find a way to survive another day. Cars were the only way people could travel to California, in the hopes of creating a better world with greater opportunities and possibilities. There was such a high demand for cars, which led to conning and cheating. In an attempt to make money, car salesmen would sell bad cars to desperate people for an inflated price. Individuals and families would buy these cars and start on the road to California. Suddenly, they would stop because of the engine problems. Cars were a symbol of false hope and false freedom.

Examples: Perspective from the salesmen:
 * “Watch the woman’s face. If the women likes it we can screw the old man. Start’ em on that Cad’. Then you can work’em down to that ’26 Buick. ’F you start on the Buick, they’ll go for a Ford. Roll up you sleeves an’ get to work. This ain’t gonna last forever. Show’em that Nash while I get the slow leak pumped up on that ’25 Dodge. I’ll give you a Hymie when I’m ready.” **

The quote, which is found in chapter 7, in The Grapes of Wrath, starts off by saying that if the wife likes a car in a dealership then her husband will buy it, which implies that the salesmen need to take advantage of the women’s position. Then the quote goes on by saying that the salesmen need to start at the Cad and work their way down, in hopes that the customer will buy the most expensive car. This quote represents the perspective of the car salesmen, in the great dust bowl, who are cheating hundreds of families out of a working car. The salesmen show greed; greed for money, greed for a better life and greed for trickery. All this greed contributes to the symbol that the car represents a false sense of hope. Cars would not represent a false sense of hope and freedom without these salesmen cheating citizens out of a good working car.

Represents the hope: **“ We put ever’ thing together-two hundred dollar. We give seventy-five for this here truck, an’ me an’ Al cut her in two an’ built on this here back. Al was gonna grind the valves, by he’s too busy messin’ aroun’ to get down to her. We’ll have maybe a hundred an’ fifty when we start. Damn ol’ tires on this here truck ain’t gonna go far.” **

This quote represents the hope of getting away from the dust and the sadness and escaping to a land of opportunity, which was California. People gave everything they had for a car, which would not reach California because they were pieces of junk. Families packed up all they had and took a risky journey where people died and lost family members forever.

**"When the truck had gone, loaded with implements, with heavy tools, with beds and springs, with every movable thing that might be sold, Tom hung around the place. He mooned into the barn shed, into the empty stalls, and he waled into the implement leanto and kicked the refuse that was left, turned a brocken mower tooth with his foot."**